I mean, even back then a visa was required, it was just that a tourist visa (which most people would have) was enough. These days, not so, you need to have a long-term visa of some kind (permits a single stay over 6 months) even to open additional accounts at the same bank. During my student days (I studied abroad in China for three years) I shopped around quite a bit for banks, but ended up settling on these to keep after my departure:
As an aside, the bottom right one is from a Korean bank called KEB-Hana. I have accounts with them in three countries- Canada, China, and Japan.
From this picture, you can tell two things:
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The concept of brand consistency seems to be entirely foreign to them.
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Japan seems to have gotten the short stick in the card design department. It’s also the first card I’ve ever gotten where my name was printed the same size as the numbers.